BLADE RUNNER Anime Series Coming to Adult Swim

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Director Denis Villeneuve released three shorts before Blade Runner 2049 came to theaters, each filling in the story of what happened during the 30 years between films. One was an anime-style short from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe. It covered the story of the infamous 2022 blackout caused by replicants that the sequel referenced. It was a beautiful, haunting story that showed just how rich and interesting the world was beyond the main films, the kind of short that was screaming to be expanded into a full series.

Adult Swim clearly heard those calls, because today they announced they will team up with Crunchyroll for Blade Runner – Black Lotus, an anime series set in 2032.

The thirteen-episode, half-hour series, will see Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) direct every episode of the first season, with Watanbe joining as a creative producer. In a press release, Adult Swim also said “the series plot is being kept under wraps,” but that “producers have confirmed the story will take place in 2032 and will include some familiar characters from the Blade Runner universe.” That might not tell us much about the specific plot, but just knowing the year does tell us who was around during that time and what they were doing.

Based on another short released before the film, Jared Leto’s Niander Wallace wasn’t able to convince authorities to lift the ban on replicants until 2036. Replicants like the one played by Dave Bautista were already in hiding for 12 years, after they erased all digital traces of themselves in the 2022 blackout.

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We could easily see a character like Dave Bautista’s appear in the anime series, as well as the replicants that revealed themselves to Ryan Gosling’s K at the end of the film. We could also see Niander Wallace, who was was working on his new and “improved” replicants during that time. Could we even see Harrison Ford’s Deckard come out of hiding too?

We don’t care which familiar characters, human or replicant, appear though. That anime short was so good we just want to spend more time in that world. We’re glad someone heard us yelling for it to happen.